ENVIRONMENT. COLOMBIA

INTRODUCTION

Here, some ideas about the environmental approach of the engineers in Colombia and the administration of the environmental topic in the country.  In my loved Colombia we have full of opportunities, but the policy of the government must change if the country wishes a sustainable future.


WE NEED A CHANGE IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL ADMINISTRATION POLICY

When I was at the university studying for my engineering degree, I heard about Greenpeace (Wikipedia, 2016) but the information that I got in that time was like about radical people fighting against the development.   I was not able to imagine the size of the conviction, effort and courage they had.  It is possible that I was a victim of media with biased information and I didn't understand the work that this organization was making and, by other hand, the questions about what was happening in the world were not enough important to me.  Indeed, there were a lot of young engineers like me focussed in their jobs with a superficial inclusion of the environmental topic in their tasks.  It is like we were illiterate about of the environmental impacts and when the environmental topic appeared in our works we were lost without idea how to make a good balanced decision.

But this situation is not a particularity of engineers, is one generality in the country we are living.  The environmental administration in Colombia works in several topics: different sources of water, biodiversity, urbanism and ecosystems. (MADS, 2016).  The environmental ministry has a huge challenge in a country with high environmental importance in the world.  It works with a big contrast between its structured ministry with lots of programs and its bad performance when the moment of the true appears.

Colombia is one of the most important countries about water and biodiversity in the world.  The average amount of water in Colombia is six times the average of water of the world (UNESCO, 2007) and because that culturally it has not been given it the value, meaning and significance that it should have (MADS, 2016).  For biodiversity, Colombia has several rankings, for example,  It has the first place for bird and orchid species, the second place for plants and amphibious (SIB, 2016), but, as Brigitte Batiste says, the biodiversity, like all the environmental topic, is coming to light in a country with historical particularities and institutional conflicts. (MADS, 2009, pg. 27)

It is in these last words where begins the problems of environmental administration in Colombia.  This country should have a strategy about its environment.  Instead, Colombia has a well-structured and well intentioned environmental ministry (MADS, 2016)  but its job is not effective because the administration is political and it has not the enough power to control the activities of the different actors like regional governments, other institutions and companies.  The chair of the environmental ministry is for paying political favors.  In the last six years Colombia has had seven environmental ministers (Wikipedia, 2016), then the vision and mission of this administration have a big charge of opportunism and constraints for achieving their legitimate programs.

One sad example of this situation became known in April when two big interests collided in the Macarena Park, one forest reserve of the country.  One company with support of one office of the environmental ministry of Colombia got the right to exploit oil and the community, that exploits the eco-tourism, disagreed with this decision (The City Papers, 2016).  The communities won the fight, because the government retired the rights despite of words of influential executives defending the right of the oil company.  Who was the worst actor in that example?  It is difficult to know.  The transnational oil company intended to have a right of exploitation near to a forest reserve; the government that put the profit first that the environmental reserve and was not able to communicate the technical decision behind the right, or the influential executives that showed with their words that the importance of the forest is low comparing with the profit of the business (Colombia Reports, 2016).  It is possible that the oil company and government could have the reason, the project would not produce damage at the zone of the Macarena Park, indeed it is near, not into, the forest reserve, but the communication was not enough convincing and the fear for the mining activity near of the park won the fight.  This situation could be produced because we are an immature society in the topic of environment and we move our non-coherent opinions between the preservationism and utilitarianism and we don’t have strong tools to find the optimum point for the environmental decisions: Technical-scientific information, strong knowledge of our territory and a strong environmental institution without political favor for paying.

In nowadays the climate change is not a scary story or hypothesis, it is a current circumstance with serious consequences in our life.  Now, we suffer the consequences of the anthropogenic disasters produced for irresponsible decisions of oil companies, chemical, mining and governments (Wikipedia, Anthropogenic Hazard, 2016).  The rate of deforestation continuous high, the industrial fishing is not stopped and the mining without care of life or biodiversity or the water sources is common practice.  Also, there are a lot of communities that want a better opportunities for their lives and that opportunities begin with the exploitation of the resources that the nature gives them.  A lot of communities are trapped in non-balanced activities; the lack understanding of the relation between the humankind and its environment; and the demonization of mining, agricultural and industrial activities.

People with lack understanding of the environmental issues, including here the engineers and the government executives, are swinging between the preservationism and utilitarianism and they take them as a religious topic without analyzing the best options for their particular situation (MADS, 2009, pg. 6).  In a world with serious environmental necessities, in a country with the same necessities and huge opportunities this is a sad situation that needs a different policy of the government: stopping the low importance that it is given to the environmental administration in Colombia.


CONCLUSION

Colombia has opportunities in the environmental global context if it changes the administration policy.  The current environmental administration is focused more in political favors than the real programs that the country needs.  This produce a waste of time and resources that the country need to increase the level of knowledge in the own environmental reality and for taking the best decision for their development.


SOURCES

Colombia Reports. (22 de April de 2016). Colombia state oil chief apologizes for being a condescending jerk in fracking debate. Obtenido de http://colombiareports.com/colombia-state-oil-chief-apologizes-condescending-jerk/
MADS. (Junio de 2009). Revisión de las bases conceptuales de la Política Nacional de Biodiversidad. Obtenido de https://www.minambiente.gov.co/images/BosquesBiodiversidadyServiciosEcosistemicos/pdf/actualizacion-politca-nacional-de-biodiversidad/5071_150310_anexo_1_fundamentos_conceptuales.pdf
MADS. (2016). Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible. Obtenido de Cultura del Agua: https://www.minambiente.gov.co/index.php/component/content/article/1954-cultura-del-agua#documentos-de-interés
MADS. (2016). Ministerio del Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible. Obtenido de https://www.minambiente.gov.co
MADS. (2016). Ministerio del Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible. Obtenido de https://www.minambiente.gov.co
SIB. (2016). Biodiversidad en Colombia. Obtenido de http://www.sibcolombia.net/web/sib/cifras
The City Papers. (20 de April de 2016). Colombian authorities revoke oil rights near Caño Cristales river. Obtenido de http://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/colombian-authorities-revoke-oil-rights-near-famous-cano-cristales-river/12532
UNESCO. (2007). Agua y Educacion. Colombia. Obtenido de https://www.minambiente.gov.co/images/GestionIntegraldelRecursoHidrico/pdf/cultura-del-agua/Agua-y-educacion-Guia-general-para-docentes-de-las-Americas-y-el-Caribe.pdf
Wikipedia. (14 de Mayo de 2016). Anthropogenic Hazard. Obtenido de https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropogenic_hazard
Wikipedia. (13 de Mayo de 2016). Greenpeace. Obtenido de https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenpeace
Wikipedia. (2016). Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible. Obtenido de https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministerio_de_Ambiente_y_Desarrollo_Sostenible



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